During the “New Year Preview” livestream, the company showed several models for the Legio and Adeptus Custodes, some of which included female-presented heads. This is a notable departure from the previous Custodes model, which had always given male-presented heads to the Emperor’s personal guard.
warhammer 40K’s The female equivalent of the Custodes has always been the Sisters of Silence, who were first introduced 40K’s The seventh edition returned in 2017. But in 2024, Games Workshop slowly began to roll back some of those restrictions: that year’s rulebook contained a short story focusing on a female Custodian named Calades Torovalia Kesh, who was their sole representative within the organization at the time. Later, the animated series tithe Its second episode introduced a female Custodian named Tyrith Shiva Kiras, and both instances drew reactions from parts of the right. warhammer Community (and that general category of online users.)
But the inclusion of female custodes here shows that they are not going anywhere. In the stream, Games Workshop mentions the Shield Captain’s helmetless head, which has “golden leaf woven into it” His hair,” (emphasis ours) as a means of suppressing any potential debate over whether it was a woman or a man with long hair. He also confirmed that this was not a historical variation: first-born sons were not the only way to obtain the Custodes, and “noble daughters could also be taken. And at some point, you run out of elite houses – even if you’ve conquered all of Terra, the Imperium’s relentless war machine still requires a constant churn of recruits.
The inclusion of female leads here is an important step for the company to take a stand against its bad faith, right-wing base, and support fans who have been demanding such an option. And for those fans, the new Legio Custodes models – which can be used in both horus heresy And Warhammer 40K-Will be available later this year.
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